Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Facilities topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
St. Cloud Schools complete wide-ranging summer facilities work; custodial staff credited
Summary
District officials outlined a long list of end-of-summer construction and maintenance projects—roof replacements, resurfaced parking lots and athletic courts, new cafeteria flooring, restroom upgrades and lead-fixture replacements—saying the work was done without referendum dollars and relied on long-term facilities budgeting.
Matthew Boucher, St. Cloud Area School District 742 executive director of operations, told the school board the district completed dozens of construction and maintenance projects over the summer designed to create the "preconditions for learning." He described roofing work, new cafeteria flooring with sound-absorbing surfaces at several schools, full replacement of tennis courts at multiple sites (with new striping for tennis and pickleball), parking-lot crack-filling and restriping, replacement of fluorescent lighting with LED, and enlarged and reconfigured health offices at North.
Boucher said the work was largely funded through existing facilities budgets, not referendum dollars, and credited district finance staff and custodians for enabling the projects. "We've been very clear: we want world-class facilities and those who deliver them will be recognized for their work," he said.
The presentation listed specific projects by site: Clearview (parking lot crack fill and restriping), Discovery (cafeteria flooring, gym repainted, power wash and stain removal, parking lot work), Oak Hill and Kennedy (tennis court rebuilds), Talahi (reseal/striping), Westwood (flooring replacement and painting across 15 classrooms and a small gym), North and South (major renovations including roofing at North, locker replacement at South, new weight room, gym divider replacements, single-use restroom installations at North and South). Apollo High School had complete replacement of its south- and east-side parking lots (including new curbing and sidewalks) and conduit installed under the surface in advance of a planned athletic complex.
Board members asked operational questions about single-use restrooms, parking-lot maintenance strategy, and project timelines. Boucher said the North single-use restrooms represent roughly half of the building's restrooms (stacked sets on two floors) and that Apollo's parking lot resurfacing had progressed to curb installation and was tracking "really well" after crews paused to install conduit. He said the district will bring a third-party evaluator to assess parking lots and recommend a multi-year sealing/maintenance schedule.
Boucher also reported the district replaced more than 100 water fixtures districtwide to meet a lowered Minnesota Department of Health threshold for lead (now 5 parts per million), and stated that no fixtures currently exceed that limit. He noted that nearly every tennis court is striped for both tennis and pickleball, and that ongoing work—such as repair and resealing of pervious parking pavers at Tech—will continue into future summers.
Board members and administrators stressed the human dimension of facilities work. "If kids don't feel safe or don't have nourishment, learning is impacted," Boucher said. Superintendent Dr. Lori Putnam and board members thanked custodians and operations staff for completing projects while preparing buildings for staff arrival.
